Ongoing Problem
by SamKo
Summary: A growing collection of oneshots/drabbles about IxR. Your topics wanted/needed, review with your topic submissions!
1. Psychiatrist

Disclaimer - I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or Ryou's past, just the psychiatrist.

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The woman fidgeted with her glasses awkwardly, scanning her notes over once again. "So let me get this straight: At age ten, both of your parents died in a fire caused by a Chirema Anima. From then onward you pledged to fulfill your father's doings of the Mew Project, in the process injecting yourself with the DNA of an Iriomote Wildcat, along with injecting five other girls with the DNA of other endangered species. You can now change into a mysterious grey cat who wears a bright green scarf at will, but you can only stay like that for 10 minutes without changing back, or else you would stay that way forever. Is this correct?"

The young man nodded in confirmation, "Yup, you've got it all there."

The woman jotted something else down in her notes, before shifting in her seat, crossing one leg over the other. "Now that we've gotten all of that out of the way…" she said awkwardly to her patient, "why did you really schedule this appointment?"

Ryou fidgeted, rolled over on his back on the bright red arm-couch he nervously laid on. He stared at the ceiling for awhile, his blue eyes able to pierce through the 10 other floors above the room he resided in with the psychiatrist. Finally after letting out a huge sigh, he decided to hurry up and get this thing over with, but not after giving himself a mental note to 'repay,' Keiichiro for scheduling this appointment for him, that he, 'desperately needed,' to, 'clear his mind.'

"You see," he murmured, "there's this employee, or rather, _girl_…"


	2. Lightbulbs

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew. Just a really tall ladder and a box of lightbulbs.

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"Nya! I'm going to be late again!" Ichigo screeched, zooming down the street toward the Café Mew Mew. She had been late the day before, and the day before that, and the last thing she needed was a three-day-streak. Standing before the café's doors, Ichigo dusted off her outfit before entering, knowing that she'd only hear the words, 'You're late, baka strawberry,' as she entered the restaurant.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly cracked open the door, only to meet an entirely unlit room. "Hello?" she called out to the emptiness, taking a few steps forward. Ichigo stopped walking at the sound of footsteps coming toward her. "You're late, Strawberry, for the third time in a row."

Ichigo growled under her breath. "I know, Shirogane," she wanted to throw some sarcastic comment at him, but she figured she'd ask about the darkness first. "Shirogane, why aren't the lights on?"

Ryou smirked, lifting the box he had carried in. "Today's a work day, Strawberry," he shoved the box forward for her to take, "and you've got the honors of changing the lightbulbs in the chandelier."

Ichigo stubbornly took the box from him. "Oh, and the ladder's over there," Ryou mentioned, pointing to a huge, ladder that rose to the very high ceiling. Ichigo just stared at it, dumbfoundedly. "Start climbing," Ryou snickered, walking off to tend to something else.

"What?!" Ichigo was still staring at the ladder. "You expect me to climb that?!" Ichigo cried. No response. "Why can't Mint do this, she could just fly up there!" Ichigo tried again. Still no response. Figuring she had no other option, Ichigo trudged over to the ladder, bringing along her new companion, the box of lightbulbs.

After spending two whole frantic minutes of climbing the ladder and reaching the top, Ichigo looked down. '_Oh Lord_,' she couldn't help think, '_it's a long way down…_'

She went ten minutes without complaining. This actually frightened Ryou. "Oh Lettuce," he called.

"Yes, Ryou-san?" Lettuce quickly answered her boss.

"Lettuce, could you go check on Ichigo? She's out in the main room changing lightbulbs, so it should be obvious as to where she is."

Lettuce nodded, turning to go find her red-haired friend.

Now, we all know Lettuce is clumsy. She's not a ditz, but she's clumsy. You can only imagine how this would double up in the darkness, searching for a 15-20 foot high ladder.

"Ichigo-san?" Lettuce decided to ask, yet she was still fumbling around to find the ladder. "Ichigo-san, are you okay?" she heard what she thought sounded like an 'm-hm,' in response, but she wasn't sure, so she looked for the ladder some more.

Oh, and she had found it. Or rather, she had bumped into it, causing it to slightly rock to the side. Ichigo, before was peacefully at work, was now clinging to the side, still at the top, for dear life.

Ichigo muttered something like, 'thanks,' just when her life grip on the ladder slipped. With a shrill "EEE!" piercing the air, Ichigo started falling.

You can also imagine that this death cry would get some attention. Ryou came rushing in the room, and decided to play hero by taking a catching pose just below the falling Ichigo.

There was just one, teensy problem with that: Ichigo, being a cat, was going to land on her feet, anyway. Of course though, at this moment in time, Ryou totally forgot about this important fact.

But it literally hit him once Ichigo pretty much knocked the snot out of him on her almost-perfect landing.

Ryou felt the warm, kitten's body on top of his. He also found her arm smothering his face, "Gd mbk t rk," was all Ichigo heard.

Still in a daze, it took Ichigo a moment to realize she was lying on her boss. "Nya!" she squeeled, quickly jerking off of him.

Ryou just pointed to the chandelier. "Get back to work, Strawberry," he said in an annoyed tone, starting to walk away.

"What?" Ichigo freaked out, "there's no way I'm going back up there!" no response. "Grrr, Shirogane! I better get a raise for this!" Ryou stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow, only to turn back and keep walking until he was out of site for Ichigo.

Ichigo huffed, crossing her arms in a pout, only to hear her boss call out, "Was that a pay deduction I just heard?"

"Nya!" Ichigo dashed back up the ladder.

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A one-shot will go up for every review/word I get in return!


	3. Banana

Today's theme is Banana, submitted by Kody

Disclaimer - I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew. I do own Tanaka.

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"Hey, Momomiya," a tough looking girl said, almost double the size of Ichigo. "Whatcha doin?"

Ichigo turned away quickly, "Leave me alone, Tanaka, I'm sort of in a hurry," she said cautiously, darting around past her. Tanaka had always been a bully to Ichigo as far back as she could remember, and the last thing she wanted was for this girl to give her reason to be late.

Tanaka put an arm out in front of Ichigo, blocking her way. "In a hurry? Since when? Oh, that's right, your Aoyama boy, right? That'll never last."

"Please, Tanaka," Ichigo pleaded, not wanting to start anything, especially before work, "leave me alone."

"I'm sorry, Momomiya," Tanaka grunted, shoving Ichigo to the ground, leaving her dirty and with open scratches and cuts, "but that's not happening anytime soon." And she walked off to who-knows-where.

Groaning from her new stinging injuries, Ichigo carefully stood up. Repositioning her bag on her back, she headed onward to the café. As she walked, she constantly muttered things like, 'Baka Tanaka,' 'I hate Tanaka,' and, 'Why can't Tanaka just leave me alone?'

Yes, she was late, trudging up the steps to the Café doors, opening them to see that they were already busy with costumers. She started to rush off to the changing room, if someone hadn't grabbed one of her pigtails and yanked it. Ichigo spun around, expecting to find a blue-eyes boss. "Shirogane, I-" but was cut off on seeing that her foe wasn't Ryou.

"Momomiya, such coincidence," the person snickered. Yup, it was none other that Tanaka, her only purpose at the Café to torture Ichigo, "Wow, you work here? The place is so…cute!" she said, semi disgust in her sarcastic voice.

Ichigo rolled her eyes. "Oh please," she moaned, turning to go to the changing room, "my life is bad enough."

"And it's only getting worse," Tanaka grinned. "You know, Momomiya," she called after her, "I was thinking about working here, too."

'Yeah right,' Ichigo thought upon entering the changing room, 'like Shirogane would hire her.'

Menawhile down in the basement…

"Shirogane-onii-chan, I'd have never guessed that bananas were an endangered species, na no da!" Pudding beamed at her intelligent boss.

Ryou let out a heavy sigh, "That's just great, Pudding, now I'm sure they need your help upstairs," he said, wanting to be alone during his research.

As soon as Pudding left, a much larger girl ran into the room. "Hey this is employees only-" Ryou started to say, only as a blinding flash of light flickered throughout the whole room. Almost scared to see what happened, he slowly looked around the room. Everything seemed to look normal, that is, until his eyes hit the ground.

There sat a banana. An almost perfect banana, with it's almighty ripe-bright-yellow-colored banananess. Why it's 'almost,' perfect, you ask?

It's DNA had been blended with that of a human, or rather, it _was_ a human, but you can imagine Ryou was clueless, and frightened, at what to do next. He had just turned a _girl_ into a b_anana_…

Just to startle Ryou more, an upset Ichigo burst in. "Shirogane, there's this girl, and," she started to fume, but fell silent at the banana, untouched, just sitting on the middle of the floor. Ichigo looked at it somewhat awkwardly, eventually bending over to pick it up.

"Um, Ichigo…"

Ichigo began to peel the banana, without even asking about it.

"Ichigo, you shouldn't do that…"

She pulled down another strand.

"Ichigo, are you listening-"

Pulling down one last strand, Ichigo glared at Ryou, "What? Shirogane, it's a banana, and I've had a rough day!..." she finished with popping the top of the banana in her mouth, taking a bite.

Ryou stared at Ichigo in horror. "I-I-Ichigo, that's not a banana…"

Ichigo just gave him a funny look. "It's not? Of course it is! What else would it be?"

"Ichigo, bananas are an endangered species. You're eating a girl, possibly a Mew…"

Ichigo's face turned pale, her mouth half-open, full of banana mush, about to take another bite, Bringing the banana down, she quietly asked, "Shirogane, w-who am I eating?"

Ryou blankly read off the name, not recognizing it, "Tanaka Chiba."

At first, Ichigo's response was unreadable. After several seconds elapsed, her expression turned to a grin, she squealed, jumped, quickly gave Ryou a hug-type-thing with her arms, took another bite of her banana, followed by skipping merrily out of the lab, leaving a dazed, yet slightly satisfied Ryou Shirogane.

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So when you review, don't forget to leave a random word!


	4. Locket

Theme: Locket- credit to I-luv-Kish-and-dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew.

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Another tough battle, and this time Ichigo was so tired, she fell asleep as soon as she returned to the café. To what was thought would be her best interest, Ryou carried her up to his room, and laid her down on his bed. He pulled the blanket over her body, and sat down next to her on the edge of the bed. He couldn't help but notice her hand, bawled up in a fist. He took his hand over hers, carefully unclenching her hand. She was holding onto her Mew Pendent. He took it, and carefully observed it.

The Mew Pendant had a crack going around its outer edges, and on one side ended with a latch. Ryou cocked an eyebrow, using his hands to pop it open. _'A locket…the Mew Pendent also functions as a locket…'_ And Ichigo was using it as one, Ryou found out, because inside was a picture of Masaya Aoyama. _'Big surprise, it's 'that boy.'_

An idea coming to him, Ryou got up from the bed and walked over to his desk. Grabbing what looked like a piece of paper and a pair of scissors, he began to cut out something about the size of the other picture of Masaya. He took out the picture of Aoyama-kun, and replaced it with one of himself.


	5. Bubbles

Theme: Bubbles- credit to I-luv-Kish-and-dark

Disclaimer: I do not own Tokyo Mew Mew or any of its characters

Ryou's fingers furiously typed at the computer. He was agitated and very upset. Memories were flooding back to him, memories of his parents. So if he was always so strong, then why was he breaking down now?

He was putting all of his knowledge into one document. All of his remembered knowledge from his father's resources and files before they were destroyed, along with his parents. Ryou wasn't really doing it for any particular reason, it just gave him something to do, so he could say he was busy, so he had been down in the basement typing like a mad man for almost the girls' entire after-school shift of working at the café.

"SHIROGANE!" screeched Ichigo's voice from outside the door. Ryou swore he felt a migraine coming on from just the thought of arguing with her at a time like this. He really didn't want to be bothered when his parents were in mind.

Ichigo bolted into the room, "Shiro-" but she stopped short at the scene of Ryou, head pressed firmly into his hands, him sitting in front of the computer screen. "Shirogane?" she said again, much more quietly this time, "Shirogane, what's wrong?"

Ryou didn't answer her. He wasn't crying, he was just ignoring her attempts to get his attention. Of all the times he watched her and ridiculed her, giving her his full attention, the one time she wanted it, he wouldn't give it to her. He made the Mew project to fulfill his father's wishes, didn't he? But what were his wishes? As his father, all he wanted was for his son to be happy, right?

Ichigo kept her footsteps soft, exiting the room, leaving Ryou where he sat, absorbed in his own thoughts. But that didn't mean she was gone, she returned again shortly after leaving.

"Shirogane!" her voice happily chimed. The sudden cheery burst from his short-tempered employee definitely directed his attention back to the strawberry. Ichigo came back in the basement with a small container of soap bubbles, the kind you blow just for the fun of it.

"Thought I'd lift the mood, yaknow?" she cutely asked, "Whenever me or my friends are down, we pull out a container of these, and blow our troubles away!" she happily informed Ryou, pulling out the wand, and carefully blowing out some little pink and blue soap bubbles. They glistened from the little light given off of the monitors in the room and slowly floated over by Ryou.

"Now here," Ichigo said, shoving the set in front of Ryou, "you should blow some, too," she instructed.

Ryou hesitated. It wasn't like him to play some childish game like blowing bubbles for fun, but it wasn't like Ichigo to act nicely like this to him, either. This showed that she did at least care about his feelings. He quickly snatched the wand and container from Ichigo's hands, startling her, but her expression faded back into a warm smile.

Taking caution, Ryou dipped the wand in the soapy water, brought it up to just in front of his mouth, and softly blew, several little bubbles forming in the air. One came over by Ichigo and popped, landing on her nose. She let out a soft giggle. Ryou even found himself chuckling a bit at the cuteness of it.

"See," Ichigo pointed out, "I told you so."


	6. Shoe Box

Theme: Shoe box, submitted by I-luv-Kish-and-dark

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"What…in the world-?"

Shoe boxes upon show boxes were stacked quite horribly in the small storage room. Ichigo stared at the dastardly amazing scene before her, twitched, then proceeded to explode at her employer.

"Shirogane!" she welped, "whaddya mean I have to restack all of these boxes? And why shoe boxes? Where did you even get them all? And why can't you do this?" Ichigo continued to make whining noises, giving Ryou her pouty lip.

"Well," Ryou sighed, brushing his fingers through his blond hair in an attempt to brush through everything Ichigo just whined about. "Minto donated the boxes, and they're strictly for storage, so I thought, why let good boxes go to waste. You're doing this because I'm paying you to work here, remember?" He began to turn to leave, but then remembered to say, "Oh, and be _extremely_ careful moving those boxes, and be sure not to look in them, it's all classified, got it, Strawberry?"

"Yeah yeah," Ichigo blew off, waving her hand, "top-secret-shoe-boxes. Woooooo…" she dawdled, trying to get rid of Ryou from the room. He eyed her cautiously, then snorted, and left.

Ichigo looked up at the enourmous mess again. Heaving a huge sigh, she bent over, picked up a small-ish shoe box, and as she began to walk forward to begin her stacking, managed to topple herself into the giant pile of boxes, knocking and opening them everywhere, their contents spilling out all over the floor in the small closet-like space.

And it was all topped off with a "NYAAAAAA!"

Back in the kitchen, Ryou was sitting at a table whilst Keiichiro was baking whomever's order. The cry got both of their attention, but the chef was the one who noted it.

"Ah, Ryou, don't you think you should-"

"No," Ryou quickly answered. "Now that she knows what was in there, there's definitely no way I could answer any questions she's got for me now."

Keiichiro gave a small chuckle, and Ryou proceeded to bury his face in his hands, groaning.

Ichigo simply sat, laughing, uncontrollably, holding her stomach, rolling around, making an even bigger mess.

"SHIROGANE KEEPS A SHOE COLLECTION?! AAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"


	7. Doorknob

Theme: Doorknob, submitted by Summer-flower-girl.

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"NYAA~!" Ichigo sprung up suddenly from her cat-nap, "I'M GOING TO BE LATE!"

Ah yes, a new glorious day in Japan. Well, new for Ichigo, afternoon for Japan. As usual, a rather frizzled Ichigo was clumsily bolting out of her room and flying down the street, headed toward the beloved Café Mew Mew where she worked part-time as a waitress, part-time as a super-heroine.

And today she knew she was late. She had no idea what time it was but she knew that she had been sleeping soundly throughout the day, just like her. She knew that she needed to run as fast as she could and hopefully slip in unnoticed so that her boss Ryou didn't give her extra work to do once she got there. She knew that Ryou would not be happy if he noticed how late she was.

And Ichigo soon knew that she couldn't get the doorknob open. In her horrific hurry and skedaddle, Ichigo wildly attempted to turn the doorknob, and in failed attempt, yanked on it with all of her might…

…Causing her to fly backwards, landing on her back in a huff.

"NYAA?!" Ichigo cried out loudly, "FIRST I'M LATE, THEN I BREAK THE DOORKNOB?!" and the poor kitty began sobbing profusively at the front step of her workplace, unaware of the door simply being pushed open, revealing an unenthused Ryou Shirogane.

Ryou looked at Ichigo, blinked, then chuckled, suddenly understanding to himself what happened. "Baka-Strawberry, the doorknob broke yesterday and I closed up shop for today, don't you remember me announcing it at work last night?" the blond asked, still with a smug grin on his face due to the adorable kitten at his doorstep.

Ichigo huffed. "I…cannot…believe…you…Shirogane!" she said, distinct spaces between all of her words as a clear sign of her aggravation. "So you mean that, instead of getting all wired up, I could still be sleeping right now?!"

Ryou blinked oddly at her, "Sleeping? Ichigo, it's four in the afternoon…"

"And I'm part cat, can ya blame me?!"

Chuckling again at the girl's unceasing ability to unintendingly entertain him, Ryou muttered, "And so am I, but you don't see me snoozing all the time," and with that he took Ichigo's hand, helped her up, and poked her nose, saying, "Well, since you came all the way out here, I suppose it would be courteous to treat you to some strawberry shortcake…" and putting his hand behind his head, turned and began walking back into the café. Noticing that she wasn't following right away, he turned half-way to look at her and said, "Unless you've got something better to do?"

Ichigo blinked, then realized the invitation. "I love strawberry shortcake!"

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Don't forget to leave a random word in your review ;D


	8. Paddleball

Theme: Paddleball, submitted by Kyorma.

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"You…bought a paddleball table?"

The ball whizzed past the head of what appeared to be a slightly miffed Ryou. "Haven't you ever heard of down-time, Strawberry?" Ryou asked, turning around to retrieve the ball.

"And that's another game for me!" Keiichiro chimed, smiling warmly at Ryou who couldn't return the look of compassion in his losing moment.

Ichigo giggled at the scene; Ryou trying his hardest not to be upset with Keiichiro, someone you could never stay mad at for very long anyway. "I came down here to see what you two were up to, thinking that there'd be a new mission or something, but no, you two are just goofing around!" she exclaimed, quite entertained at by her bosses doing something leisurely that had no relation to anything what-so-ever.

Ryou paused for a moment, thinking, and then smirked, an idea coming to mind. "Say, Strawberry," he said coyly, "How about you play me for awhile? Let's make a little bet. If I win, you do dishes for the next two weeks. And if you win-"

"You'll give me a raise?!" Ichigo piped, cutting him off, and eagerly wanting her idea to take effect to the gamble.

Ryou blinked, hesitated, and then chuckled, "Sure. But I hope you know what you're doing, this game is harder than it looks, and I find it quite hard to imagine a clumsy Strawberry being very good at it."

Keiichiro handed the paddle to Ichigo, and bringing his hand to his mouth, whispered, "Don't worry; he's not very good at this."

Ichigo giggled, taking the paddle, and walked up to the table. She looked at Ryou and glared, more than eager to create tension. Ryou looked back at her, and attempted to bounce the ball on the table and bounce it with his paddle. However, after hitting the ball once with his paddle, the ball missed his paddle when it came up the second time and flew across the room, to who knows where.

Ichigo and Keiichiro merely stared at the blond, whose cheeks were faintly beginning to match the shade of ripe tomatoes.

Not willing to start looking for the tiny ball amidst all of the computers in that room, Ryou shrugged and said, "Oh well, looks like the bet is off. Now how about you be an over-achiever and get on my good side by doing the dishes anyway?"

Ichigo fumed. "You're just happy you don't have to play me cuz I woulda creamed you!" she yelled out, "and how about _you_ get on my good side and _give me a raise anyway_, nya?"

"Hmm, I'll think about it," Ryou said, without any pause or hesitation.

Ichigo was astounded, "R-r-really?!"

"Yeah, sure, if you do the dishes for the next two weeks."

"Uh, Shirogane!"

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I debated through this one a lot as I wrote it, haha. I actually really want to have them play out that match sometime later (:


	9. Potato

Theme: Potato, submitted by mangagirl16

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"Strawberry, what the _hell_ is that?"

Ichigo giggled giddily to herself and continued to play with her new imported toy. "It's a Mr. Potato Head!" she exclaimed to her boss, sticking a pair of very googly eyes on the spud and holding it out for him to see. "See? I made it look like Aoyama-kun!"

"Oh gimme that, baka-Strawberry," Ryou mumbled, snatching the toy from the girl's hands, "you're at work to work, not to play with toys for challenged children. Now get back out into the dining area and take care of costumers like you get paid to do." He set the toy back on the table and then noted, "Oh, and try acting your age while you're out there, too."

Whimpering a bit first, Ichigo left in a huff, scoffing, "Shirogane, you big meanie!"

After he made sure she was gone, Ryou looked down at the plastic potato and picked it back up. _What could possibly be entertaining about this?_ he thought. Continuing to look at the assorted accessories laid out on the table that were for the fashionable spud, his eyes scanned all the items, and chuckling to himself, he replaced Mr. Potato's brown wig with a blond one, set him back down at the table, and left the kitchen.


	10. Ramen

Theme: Ramen, submitted by Ang.E.M- You KNOW I'm Bad

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Slumping into the kitchen, the young blond boy breathed in deeply, followed by a long sigh. Keiichiro was baking orders. Sugar, sugar, sugar, always the smell of milk and honey in the air, and Ryou was starting to feel tired of it that day. He needed something…salty, something that was opposite from his day to day ordinary, and the genius suddenly got an idea.

"Hey, Strawberry," Ryou coolly said the next time Ichigo went into the kitchen to pick up an order, "got a minute?"

Ichigo just blinked at her boss and walked up to him. "Whaddya want?" she said in a tone that already gave off a hint of aggravation.

"Look, I'm just hungry, and I'm tired of sweets, and you and I both love ramen, so I want to play a quick game. Rock, paper, scissors me. Loser treats to ramen later?"

The red-headed kitten thought for a moment, then smiled and obliged.

"Alright, ready?" Ryou said, he and Ichigo putting their hands out ready to play, "Rock, paper, scissors, shoot!"

"YAY!" Ichigo cheered, "Paper covers rock!" and she used her straightened hand to cover up Ryou's fist. "What a great idea, Shirogane!"

Ryou was a bit upset that he lost, but something else got his attention: Ichigo's hand was still clasped over his. It was an opportunity to be a jerk and say something about it, or he could act like he didn't notice it was still there.

"Oh, yuck!" Ichigo suddenly remarked, "Shirogane, why didn't you tell me that I was still touching you?" and she whipped her hand away from his.

_Oh well_, Ryou thought, _at least I kind of have a date with her tonight._


	11. Candle

Yet again, it's just minutes after midnight, and here I am, writing drabbles of my favorite TMM pairing. Woo!

I'm trying to keep things a bit shorter, the way drabbles are meant to be, ahaha.

Theme: Candle, submitted by Ang.E.M- You KNOW I'm Bad (don't worry, saxaphone's next!).

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After an afternoon of necessary shopping, Ryou Shirogane made his way back down the escalators of his favorite department store, when an incredibly familiar scent caught his attention. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, so he followed his nose for a bit, and as he got closer to where it was coming from, he knew for sure. It smelled like strawberries, he'd know that scent anywhere, but just where was it coming from? His senses were enhanced because he was part wildcat, but there was no way it was Ichigo Momomiya that he was smelling from that far away.

He continued to follow his nose, until it brought him to a candle display, with their featured scent currently burning: Sensuous Strawberry.

Darting his eyes about quickly to make sure no one was watching him, Ryou grabbed a candle and proceeded to the check-out.


	12. Saxophone

Theme: Saxophone, submitted by Ang.E.M.

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"Baka-Strawberry, you've _got_ to go with this."

"NO WAYYY! If _you're_ so good at it, why don't you just play?"

"Because you're the waitress," Ryou snarked at her. "This band idea is golden, if you'd just try it. The other girls are learning to play instruments, too. Now here," he handed the one and a half by three foot black case to her, "I'm giving you this alto saxophone if you'd just learn how to play it. And I'm offering to teach you."

Ichigo huffed. Sure, the music teacher at school told her at an early age that the saxophone was one of the easiest instruments to learn how to play, but they also told her at an early age that she couldn't carry a tune with a bucket. How different was the saxophone from singing? If it had to do with music, Ichigo really didn't want to have any part of it.

"Shirogaaaaneee," she whined, fiddling around awkwardly, her slow mind trying to quickly think of a way to get out of the situation, "pleaaaaase?"

"Hmph. Well," Ryou thought, searching in his mind for an equivalent to please the kitten, "I guess you could sing. That'd be easier for you?"

Her face changing to match her hair and uniform, Ichigo hastily grasped the case and muttered ever so softly, "can you teach me when my shift is over?"

Ryou smirked, and ruffled Ichigo's hair with his hand, as if he were petting her. "Good girl. Meet me in the basement when you're done today then. Do you know anything about music?"

"Uhm," Ichigo pondered, bringing a finger to her mouth in thought, "I listen to the radio?"

He snorted shortly after her answer, and just before he left for the kitchen, replied, "It's going to be a loooooong night."

Which was _no_ problem for Ryou at all.

After all, there really was_ no_ band.

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Leave your random word in your review please (:


	13. Pomegranate

Call me crazy, but I actually had to do some research for this one. Not because pomegranates are unfamiliar to me, but because I had no idea how I could write a story about one. Turns out there's all sorts of back-story to our multi-ariled fruit. So in actuality, it was difficult for me to narrow down our story possibilities to just one idea.

And remember, if you read, PLEASE submit a random word afterwards, my thanks in advance!

Theme: Pomegranate, submitted by Cheri Amour

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"What, in the world, is _that_?" Ichigo was in the kitchen, both befuddled and weirded-out, with her pointed finger shaking at the unknown fruit before her. It was almost like an orange – somewhat – except that it was redder in color and instead of slices were a hundred little ovals revealed between the white membranes after pealing.

Keiichiro smiled as he was cleaning and preparing the fruits, just about to answer Ichigo, when Ryou stepped in out of the blue, grabbed a red ball and held it up greedily, saying, "I'm glad you asked! This is a pomegranate!" he said, marveling, holding it up, and admiring it some more. "A cup of this stuff's juice has thirty grams of sugar in it, which is twice as much as a serving of the Captain Crunch you had for breakfast this morning!" He put the fruit down, and began to aid Keiichiro in readying the odd looking balls of juicy sugar. "Long scientific story short, this is part of our idea for a new menu item, and if it goes well, we may be substituting pomegranate juice in for a lot of other things, since the sugar content is so high!"

Ichigo hadn't asked for a nutrition lesson, but she had gotten one, and she was busy contemplating it, smoke coming from her ears. With her face knotted up and her fingers all in a jam together in front of her head, as if trying to sort her thoughts out with her hands, she ran back out into the café to take more orders.

Hours later, with the café at a close and the clean-up almost at an end, Ichigo had a question for her genius boss. She was more than sure that he'd know the answer, and with what he told her before, she just had to know. Finding him in the kitchen alone, still going away with more pomegranates, Ichigo cautiously approached him.

"Uh, Shirogane?" she muttered, her index fingers bumping up together in a cute-fashion as she walked up to the busy blonde.

"Yeah?" he asked, only half-paying attention to the fact that she was standing right there.

"Uhm, about the sugar content in pomegranates?"

"Yeah?"

"Well…"

"Yeah?"

"…so they're sweeter than strawberries?"

Ryou paused. What was a simple nature and fact for business had pointlessly riled up his strawberry, and he stared at his red-stained hands for a moment, slowly grabbed a towel to wipe them, and took another moment to think up something witty to say.

"Are you asking that I test that?"

"Uh, whaa?" Ichigo blabbered, taken aback, staring at her superior dumbfounded.

"What you're asking is a question that I can't answer unless I perform a quick test. I'll just taste a strawberry, then a pomegranate, and then decide. Isn't that what you're asking?"

He had her. She was still staring, but he couldn't tell if she was thinking about whether he should test or not or if that was what she really was asking.

"B-but…we're all out of strawberries?" she managed to murmur, intentionally for herself, but loud enough for Ryou's cat-hearing to pick it up.

Closing the distance, Ryou took two compelling steps to fill the gap between himself and the pondering kitten. He knew he was dancing around the line, but he enjoyed every second of it. Tilting her somewhat stubborn chin upward to look him in the eyes, he asked innocently, "Curiosity killed the cat, you know. You were asking about _yourself_, were you not? Why else would you get so worked up over something so silly like this?"

And with that, he smirked, tilted his head, and began to lean in for his testing, when the confused and freaked out kitten couldn't take it anymore. Ichigo jolted and pushed herself away, her face redder than strawberries and pomegranates together. "You," she huffed, her brain clouded and not clearly thinking through what just happened, "you're not funny!" and she ran off, muttering things like "stupid science" and "stupid Shirogane."

Sighing for the defeat, Ryou went back to the sink, when Keiichiro came back in. "Think I had her going?" he asked his co-worker.

Giving an awkward, half-grin, Keiichiro answered, "Yeah, until you leaned in for the attack."

"Hey, it was worth a shot, right?"

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Well, was it worth a shot? Remember to leave a random word in your review ;D


	14. Handprints

Even if I've been inactive for years, that means nothing mwahaha. Enjoy this fluff.

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It was silly. How he even got caught into doing this silly thing, he would never know.

About a year ago, when the shop first opened, Café Mew Mew was getting their sidewalk redone. In honor of their waitresses, each one got to put their hands in the soft cement to leave their handprints, and sign their name underneath.

After all the girls had gone home one day, Ryou found himself admiring all these handprints.

And ah, there were her dainty prints. Quite the opposite actually, as, when Ichigo was attempting to leave her mark, Ryou had come out at that very moment and made some comment telling her not to mess up. Being Ichigo and not taking any kind of remark from Ryou well, she freaked out, uncarefully removing her hands to flip around and yell at her blond boss. In her frustration, her mark in the sidewalk now looked like an alien's foreign marking.

Ryou had realized that she was going to be upset over this, and without saying anything, joined Ichigo crouching over her territory of sidewalk.

"Well this is different," he whispered, "But I like it. It's different and has character, just like you."

This was a year ago. This day, Ryou found himself again, crouching over the messed up handprints, and, without thinking, put his hands down into Ichigo's prints, because he knew, that was probably about as close as he was going to get to holding her hands.

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